Second Variety
by Philip K. Dick, Philip Dick · first published 1853
44% recommend56% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, gripping science fiction about self-replicating robotic weapons on a war-torn battlefield. It is spellbinding and unsettling, and serves as an entry point to Philip K. Dick's work.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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This reminds me of Philip K. Dick's "The Second Variety" that I recently read. (Not that I'm trying to make a prescient political-statement, just sharing a fun short-story you might be interested in.) http://manybooks.net/pages/dickp3203232032/0.html
on “AI fighter pilot wins in combat simulation” ↗Second Variety is maybe Philip K Dick's best short story. It both completely spellbound and scared the hell out of teenage me. You might guess one of the weapon systems it mentions. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm
on “US Navy develops cannon-launched 'swarming' drones” ↗"Second Variety"(short story, worth a quick read) by Philip K. Dick was adapted into a film called 'Screamers'. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamers_(1995_film)
on “An AI defeated human fighter pilots in an air combat simulator (2016)” ↗old but good short stories The Defenders by Philip K. Dick a different take - Second Variety by Philip K. Dick. Not totally omniscient AI but running large ships and space stations - Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie AIs with personality running almost every machine and helping rule the…
on “Attempts to scientifically “rationalize” policy may be damaging democracy” ↗…is well portrayed in Total Recall, also based on a Philip K. Dick story which varies enough from the movie to be read as separate work. Short story not mentioned but is worth reading if one has not, Second Variety.
on “The Essential Philip K. Dick” ↗"Short story not mentioned but is worth reading if one has not, Second Variety." The movie The Terminator has some similarities to Second Variety, and I wouldn't be surprised if the movie was somewhat influenced by the story.
on “The Essential Philip K. Dick” ↗…just start out with short story collections to get used to his weirdness and the various sci-fi tropes he reuses a lot (eg 'homeopapes' that printed newspapers on demand). Pick a collection that includes Second Variety. Flow my Tears is probably his most accessible novel. Do Androids Dream is very disorienting if you were expecting a novelization of Blade Runner and that probably puts a lot of people off him.
on “The Essential Philip K. Dick” ↗Dick also wrote the fantastic short story 'Second Variety'[0] which has a similar theme, but involves autonomous, self-replicating robots that serve as a sort of intelligent mine field that separates warring factions on a the moon or an alien planet in the 1995…
on “Agile Soccer Skills for a Bipedal Robot with Deep Reinforcement Learning” ↗This is pretty much the premise of Philip Dick's Second Variety, made into the movie Screamers.
The movie Blade Runner was based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, written by Philip K Dick in 1968. The movie The Terminator was at probably partially inspired by the short story Second Variety, written by Philip K Dick in 1953.
on “Time for a return of the Cypherpunks, Crypto-Anarchists & Techno-Libertarians?” ↗…like an automated smart minefield, which can be mobile. I'm sure we will see that soon, because the usefulness of such things (if they work) will be too hard to pass up. I hope that Philip K. Dick's Second Variety [1] is not the way that ends up, though. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety
on “Darpa Unveils Upgraded Atlas Robot, Now Completely Unplugged” ↗The title brought memories in me about two quite uncomfortable dystopian short stories by Philip Dick: Second Variety and Autofac.
on “The Road to Self-Reproducing Machines” ↗The US Army has never read 'Second Variety' by Philip K. Dick by the sound of it. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm
on “Let's give these quadruped robot dogs next-gen XM7 rifles, says US Army” ↗…loitering, intelligent munitions make it too dangerous to be an economically valuable human outside of a bunker, we'll need robots running the robot factories, then we get Philip K. Dick's scenario in The Second Variety.
on “Missile Defense Is NP-Complete” ↗Nevermind that. Looking at Ukraine, we're getting close to Philip K Dick's Second Variety. I'm always amazed at the handwringing over whether language models are "aligned" properly when we are actively developing devices that can - as autonomously as possible - seek out and kill. And I don't…
on “Eunice is almost here” ↗